Aprilia fire back: Aleix Espargaro leads Maverick Vinales in Mugello Warm-up
Looking to halt Ducati’s impressive dominance so far this weekend - the top five for today’s Grand Prix are all made up of Ducati riders - Espargaro started morning warm-up in great form.
The Spaniard was consistently inside the top three, a result he would do well to repeat come the checkered flag later today.
After making a shock announcement that will see him step away from MotoGP after today’s Mugello race in order to have a fourth right arm operation, Marc Marquez changed up his warm-up strategy by exiting pit lane as soon the green flag was waved.
Not for the first time this season, Marquez made an immediate return as he practiced a bike swap.
With track conditions still not ideal due to wet patches remaining, Miguel Oliveira was the early pacesetter.
However, the Portuguese rider began coming under pressure from the Ducati’s of Luca Marini, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi - today’s front row.
Joan Mir managed to break up the Ducati trio by going third, before that quickly turned into fourth as Jack Miller went second.
Although several riders were positing red sectors, no rider was able to get near Oliveira in the final part of the lap, thus leading to the factory KTM rider remaining fastest for much of the session.
That stayed true until just over six minutes were left when Vinales went quickest. Fresh off a new two-year deal, Vinales has once again shown pace throughout the weekend, despite failing to advance through Q1.
As Vinales and Espargaro continued their tandem riding, Johann Zarco set a low 1m 47s to go quickest.
Vinales responded quickly to reassert himself atop the leaderboard, however, team-mate Espargaro then overhauled his fellow Spaniard with the first sub 1m 47s lap of the session.
In what’s been another disastrous weekend after qualifying last, Andrea Dovizioso was unable to find pace during warm-up for his home round - RNF Yamaha rider finished 24th.
Towards the rear of the field for much of warm-up, Marquez moved into tenth during the final minutes after following Jorge Martin closely.
Rookies steal the show in Mugello MotoGP qualifying!
Di Giannantonio delivered the performance of his career to clinch a maiden MotoGP pole after getting the better of fellow rookie Marco Bezzecchi in tricky conditions.
After three practice sessions in bond-dry conditions, FP4 became a preview for qualifying as rain hit the Mugello circuit.
As more and more rain started to fall, Marquez headed out of pit lane on slick tyres, a decision he regretted with immediate effect.
As he rode around the outside of Fabio Quartararo, Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi, Marquez highsided on the exit of turn two as he violently landed on his head and shoulder.
The eight-time world champion’s bike then caught fire as it self-destructed with Marquez in the gravel.
Thankfully, Marquez returned to his feet relatively quickly before returning to pit lane. Without a flying lap being complete, the red flags were rightfully brought out.
Once the session restarted, every rider headed back out on-track with slick tyres.
Building on his stunning Q1 performance, Fabio Di Giannantonio immediately found his groove as he bolted to the top of the leaderboard.
Di Giannantonio then went a further 1.2 seconds clear of Bezzecchi, while Luca Marini made it a provisional all-Ducati front row.
Ducati’s dominance continued as Q2 developed, but this time it was Zarco leading the way as Bagnaia slotted in third place.
With Di Giannantonio returning to provisional pole, several riders attempted to dislodge the Italian on their final lap.
And Bezzecchi did just that as he went two tenths faster, but with Di Giannantonio yet to take the checkered flag, the Gresini Ducati rider pumped in four red sectors as he came across the line to eventually set a time of 1:46.156s, therefore pole was his.
